Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

Language has always been considered the most effective medium of communication among humans to express their thoughts, opinions, and emotions. As a consequence of globalization, a lot of people end up living, studying, working, and travelling in countries where both their first and the second languages may not be used. This situation creates a need for learning a third language (L3) considering proficiency in first (native) and second (presumably English) languages. Numerous studies have been conducted on L2 and a lot in the field of L3. However, this study found a scope to research specifically on the language (L3) learning intention in terms of its usefulness for international students who are in a country where their native language and the L2 are not in use. More than 161 international students studying under the Chinese Language Learning program as well as students studying in graduate and undergraduate levels at public universities in Yunnan, Beijing, Jiangsu, and Hunan in China participated in this study. By extending the theory of planned behavior with the Self Determination Theory (SDT), along with the influence of the L2, a survey questionnaire was prepared and data was collected from these participants. Later, the data was analyzed by common method variance and path model estimation of Partial Least Square (PLS) algorithm to generate and evaluate predictions for intentions of learning Chinese as the L3 considering the perceived usefulness of the language which eventually validates the mentioned theories.